


Man out of Time

by tuesday



Category: Captain America (Movies), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Timelines, Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Compliant, Background Original Timeline Steve Rogers/Peggy Carter, Canon-Typical Violence, Canonical Character Death, Implied Original Timeline Steve Rogers/Tony Stark, M/M, Minor Character Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-12
Updated: 2019-08-12
Packaged: 2020-08-19 17:04:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,257
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20213248
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tuesday/pseuds/tuesday
Summary: Tony had loved Captain America since he was a child.





	Man out of Time

**Author's Note:**

  * For [dreamkist](https://archiveofourown.org/users/dreamkist/gifts).

> For this 300 bpm fic, I took "Young and Beautiful" by Lana del Rey and went in the direction of two Steve Rogers and the alternate timeline original Steve created. I hope you enjoy it!

Tony had loved Captain America since he was a child. Both of them, really. One of them was married to Aunt Peggy. He asked Tony to call him Steve and looked at him like he was something precious and strange. He was old, practically Howard's age. When Howard had said he was going to send Tony to boarding school, he'd shut himself in the office for hours talking with Howard, and when they came out, Howard agreed Tony would stay in New York. The other Captain America was younger. He spent more time around the mansion than the older one, visiting Howard often. He was angry sometimes, but he was never angry with Tony.

Not even when he caught Tony eavesdropping at the door to his dad's office. At the time, Tony didn't understand what he heard.

"You couldn't expect her to wait forever," Howard said.

"I don't. I didn't." Captain America sounded incensed, his voice tight. "But why did it have to be him?"

"You should be flattered. She couldn't settle for anything less." Howard was employing the voice he used whenever Tony was missing something obvious.

"She would have if he hadn't interfered."

"And you'd still be on ice if he hadn't stuck his nose in it."

"Sometimes I wish he'd left me there," Captain America burst out and made such a precipitous exit that he caught Tony unawares and right in the face with the door. "Shit."

"Captain America cursed," Tony said in astonishment, holding a hand against his bleeding forehead, trying to hold together the split eyebrow.

"The man was in the army," Howard said, zero concern for Tony getting blood all over the hardwood floor.

"I didn't mean to," Captain America said.

"You're not in trouble," Tony tried to reassure him. "Mom didn't hear."

Captain America didn't look reassured. Captain America looked horrified.

Tony got an awesome scar out of it and a story to tell all the friends he wasn't going to make when he started M.I.T. How many other kids got something so permanent to remember their crush by?

(The older Captain America somehow took it even worse, fussing over Tony's stitches and acting like he'd done it himself.)

—

When Tony started M.I.T., he did make one friend for real. Rhodey was less impressed by Tony's scar story and more interested in Tony having corrected the guest lecturer of a lecture they'd both attended and which Tony had been kicked out of.

"You're terrifyingly smart, you know that?" Rhodey told him. "But you've got no damn sense."

"Thanks. I get that a lot."

Rhodey ruffled his hair. "Come on, I can buy you coffee and you can tell me what else the guy got wrong. You can drink coffee, right?"

"I won't tell if you won't," Tony said instead of letting on that he could drink something a little more interesting than a caffeinated beverage. That was apparently the sort of knowledge to ease a new friend into. The first time the older Captain America had caught Howard sneaking Tony a drink, he'd looked terribly sad, and the first time the younger one had caught Tony sneaking himself one, he'd raised hell.

"I can tell knowing you is going to be interesting," Rhodey said.

—

Tony slept around in college. Everyone did.

Tony drank in college. It wasn't like he was going to stop with initial paternal approval on one side and a double dose of Captain America disappointment on the other.

Tony had a great time. (Tony had a terrible time.) Eventually, he graduated. He went back for grad school.

—

When Tony was getting his PhD, something major happened. Something awful. No one would tell him what exactly had occurred, but the upshot was that his dad was dead, Captain America's war buddy James Barnes he'd been searching for for decades had been found, and his mom was critically injured. Tony had planned to go home over winter break, but everyone, from his mom to his dad to Jarvis to _both_ Captain Americas had told him to stay in his campus apartment. He'd thought—

It didn't matter what he'd thought. 

(His last words to his dad had been, "Fine. I always knew you didn't want me around. Thanks for the final, personal confirmation. I won't come back at all." And then he'd hung up.)

Tony went home. He practically broke his hand on one Captain America's jaw when he explained Tony's dad had gotten killed doing a personal favor for him. He wept on the other's shoulder when he pulled Tony away. Tony was very, very drunk. He didn't know if his mother was going to live.

When the younger Captain America tried to put Tony to bed, Tony tried to pull him in with him.

"Come on, Cap, give me this," Tony cajoled him.

"You're drunk," Captain America said gently.

"That's what happens when you drink a fifth of vodka," Tony agreed.

"Try to get some sleep."

"You know what would help with that?" Tony shamelessly ran his hands up Cap's firm chest and linked them behind his neck.

"Closing your eyes and lying down." Cap was being weirdly patient with him. Tony hated it.

"I'm willing to lie down," Tony said. He pressed a kiss to Cap's jaw. "I'll even close my eyes if you like."

Cap pushed him into bed and forcibly tucked him in.

"This is not the sort of bondage I'm into," Tony complained when Cap wrapped him in the covers like a Tony-shaped burrito.

"Sleep. I'll come back in to check on you later."

"You or you?" Tony asked.

"I can tell him to stay away if you want me to," Cap offered. He sounded tired. "But I can tell you now he doesn't really listen to me."

"I'll take just you, if that's okay," Tony said.

Cap dropped a hand on Tony's head, ruffling his hair. "Good night, Tony. Try to sleep it off."

—

After that, Tony kind of had a favorite.

—

Maria recovered, but both Captains America were politely, but firmly informed they weren't welcome anymore. Same with Aunt Peggy. Maria took the reins of Stark Industries for the year Tony took to finish his PhD and get his feet under him. His mother was alive, but she wasn't the same. There was something colder there now, though it thawed whenever she looked Tony's way. Her hands shook sometimes. Her balance was off.

When Tony took his place as head of the company, his mother kissed his cheek and told him she was retiring to Italy. She had extended family there.

"We can hire help. We can do whatever you need," Tony told her. "Whatever you want. Please."

"I want to leave this country and never look back," Maria said. She smoothed a hand down Tony's cheek and smiled. "That's what I want."

And that's what she did.

—

A month after Maria left, the older Captain America came by. He asked, "You going to punch me again?"

"Nah." Tony looked at him with new eyes. He really was old, having aged what looked like decades in the year he'd been gone. "But just because Mom's in Europe doesn't mean I'm not going to respect her last edict. You're not welcome in her home."

Captain America sighed. "I am sorry."

"You can tell me about it over coffee," Tony said. He closed the door behind him and flashed Captain America a wry smile. "Catching up at a local diner isn't letting you in."

—

Cap showed up not long after that. He rang the bell and scrupulously didn't try to cross the threshold when Tony swung the door wide. He looked baby-faced in comparison, though Tony had always thought of him as unreachably older when he was a kid. He didn't even look as old as Tony's mom.

"Come on, then," Tony said.

"He said we weren't allowed in."

"He's not." Tony's smile this time was sharp. "I'm willing to make a special exception."

Cap snorted. "We're the same person, you know that?"

"No." Tony's smile faded. "You're not."

—

Tony was thirty-seven when he was attacked and kidnapped in Afghanistan. He wasn't supposed to be there. Captain America had some sort of thing about the Middle East and Tony. He'd said it was just a superstition and in the same breath had also made Tony promise never to go. Tony had made the promise when he was five, when he was ten, and when he was twelve. He'd been just a kid, but he'd kept it.

Until now. Tony was regretting going back on his word.

To add insult to injury, Tony had been injured by one of his own bombs, probably part of the missing shipment Tony had been looking into by himself, because boy, would it have been embarrassing to have to go crawling to Captain America to ask for help.

As he passed out, Tony vowed if he survived this, he'd at least go to Cap next time.

—

Tony survived it.

—

Captain America was on the chopper that picked Tony up. So was Rhodey, who'd told Tony to just go talk to his dad's old friends. Rhodey always had been smarter than Tony when it came down to it.

"Where's Cap?" Tony asked when he was clearer-headed, hooked up to an I.V. and no longer half-delirious from sunstroke and dehydration.

"With S.H.I.E.L.D.," Captain America said. "They're picking up a souvenir for you. It's taking them some time to find your landing point."

"Huh." Tony let his head flop back against the pillow. Just because he was clearer-headed didn't mean he was in a good place. He said, "Did you even try to prevent this?" Captain America flinched back. "Just wondering. Because it seems a lot like you were expecting this."

"How could you—" Captain America looked away. For once, he looked furious, that calm veneer he'd worn most of Tony's life scraped away. "The Ten Rings don't exist here. Obadiah has been in jail most of your life from everything we had on him. This shouldn't have happened." He looked back. There were spots of red on his cheeks. "And you _promised_ me you'd stay out of Afghanistan."

"So this is my fault," Tony said.

"It's not your fault. It's—maybe it's the universe's fault. I don't—" He put his head in his hands. "I can't lose you again. I can't."

Tony hurt too much to be nice about this. "I'm not him. Your Tony? That guy you've been looking for my whole life? That man's dead. All you've got here is me, the inferior version."

"There's nothing inferior about you," Captain America insisted.

"Lie to yourself about how you feel if you want. But I know how you look at me."

"Tony, I've always cared about you." Captain America was doing the shiny-eyed sincerity thing. Tony couldn't take it right now.

"Liar," Tony said quietly.

Captain America looked like Tony had punched him again and it had actually hurt this time.

"Get out."

He went.

—

Cap was a welcome face less than twenty-four hours later. He had sand in his hair.

"Did you dig the armor out all by yourself?" Tony asked.

"If I had, I'd still be there," Cap said. He sat at Tony's bedside and grabbed his hand.

"Then what took you so long?"

Cap laughed.

After a companionable silence, Tony said, "So I was kind of an asshole to your doppelganger."

"If you're looking for a plan of approach, I don't know how to help you. You'd be better off asking Peggy." Cap had come so far. His voice barely caught on her name anymore.

"I'm not asking for advice, just warning you I actually got under his skin for once." Tony looked down at Cap's hand. His thumb was brushing over Tony's knuckles, back and forth, back and forth. "I'll apologize later."

"Will you really?" Cap asked.

"Maybe. If I feel like it."

Cap kept leaning further into Tony's space. His eyes were shining. Somehow, unshed tears were more appealing on him. He was rocking the guileless sincerity thing. Quietly, he said, "I'm so glad you're okay."

"How come you've never asked me to call you Steve?" Tony wondered. Cap was close enough now that Tony could feel his breath on Tony's face.

"I introduced myself as Steve Rogers when we first met," Cap said with a bemused expression.

"Huh." Tony had been too young for it to stick, maybe. Tony reached up his free hand and ran his thumb along Cap's jaw. "Stop me if I'm about to embarrass myself. But it's been eighteen years and I'm not drunk. I've had a truly terrible three months, and no alcohol was the least of it. I think I deserve something nice."

"Tony—" That didn't look like it was going to be a no.

Tony smiled sweetly. "Hey, Steve. You're really nice."

Steve leaned in the couple inches between them and kissed Tony. It was really, really nice.

—

Tony didn't mean to eavesdrop. It was his damn house. If the Captains America wanted a private conversation, they should've gone somewhere else.

"I know you won't believe me," Captain America said to his younger counterpart, "but you're the lucky one."

Tony wrenched the door open before it could hit him in the face, but the two were standing calmly in the study. They looked over at Tony, who tried to look like he'd meant to open the door open that quickly.

"Yeah." Steve beamed at Tony. "I know."

—


End file.
